20 - 25 pilot whales were captured yesterday and netted off in the Cove Photo: Sea ShepherdSea Shepherd’s Cove Guardian team on the ground in Taiji, Japan will be live streaming from the shores of the killing Cove in Taiji today, as they bear witness to the fate of a pod of 20 – 25 pilot whales captured yesterday and netted off in the Cove. It is the fifth wild pod of dolphins captured this season and this season’s first capture of pilot whales.

Two juveniles were kidnapped yesterday from their family for a life in captivity and placed in holding pens in Taiji harbor. The remainder have been held overnight, huddled together in fear and confusion without food or shelter for more than 16 hours. Pilot whales are not often selected for captivity and it is likely all but perhaps the tiniest babies will be brutally slaughtered for human consumption, despite the fact that their flesh is tainted with neuro-toxic mercury and other contaminants. The matriarch (leader of the pod) is the largest and most financially valuable because she yields the most meat, and is therefore usually the first to be killed. As they are so small, the babies are typically not of value to the killers, so they will likely be dumped at sea without their mothers, left to fend for themselves. Without the safety of their mothers or podmates, these babies often starve to death or become prey for other animals if they survive the brutal capture and release process.

This is the fifth wild pod of dolphins captured this season Photo: Sea ShepherdThe slaughter of thousands of dolphins, porpoises, and small whales occurs in Japan each year. In Taiji, starting on September 1st and usually continuing through March of the following year, fishermen herd whole families of small cetaceans into shallow bays and mercilessly stab them to death with a metal spike inserted into their backs to sever their spinal cord. They slowly bleed to death or drown in their own blood. These inhumane, brutal killings would not be allowed in any slaughterhouse in the world.

Taiji’s annual slaughter of dolphins was virtually unknown until 2003 when Sea Shepherd — a leading, international, non-profit marine conservation organization — globally released covertly obtained footage and photographs of the now infamous bloody Cove. The Cove Guardians is the only group to have had a team on the ground in Taiji for every single day of the six-month killing season since first beginning an official campaign there in September of 2010.

Tune into the live stream at 1:30 pm PST today at: http://livestream.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/. Note that Taiji has gone to great lengths to hide their so-called “culture” by limiting our vantage points, but we will show every view that we can so the worldwide livestream audience can witness this atrocity in the hope they will be spurred to action.

Two juveniles were kidnapped yesterday from their family for a life in captivity Photo: Sea Shepherd